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Scratch Build – In Progress BaDassumption - Photo Shoot...

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by dutchcedar, 8 May 2006.

  1. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    The Slide-out Mainboard and Operable Dome...

    This is an early design sketch showing some of what will be going on in the back and with the lifting mechanism...

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    Hey, when you're waiting for parts (that's my excuse, anyway) and its a rainy day... ya draw, right? Well, drawing seems to bring out the ideas and here's the final design... it incorporates the linear actuator with the roll out schtuff so that it doesn't need to be disconnected and so the whole up and down thing can be fine tuned outside of the case. Notice the mainboard tray stiffeners... inspired by Nexxo's graphic card braces...

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    The bracket that's under the radiator pod needs some work... its there to support a shaft bushing on the back side.

    Anyway... this arrangement cleans up the actuator mounting quite a bit and direct connects it to an arm on the pivot shaft. It also puts the actuator's forces (it can lift 120 pounds) in the right place. Before, every time it would push, it would direct forces against the main pod to the backplate. I was concerned that it would try to tear the backplate off, if ya know what I mean... Now the forces are all working together on the backplate.

    I'm looking for it to lift somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees.

    Another look... insert your own desert clad dancing girls... :hip:

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    A sneaky part of this that isn't shown is another scopEDog inspiration... a folding "cage" that allows cooling tubes and wires to extend as the tray is pulled out... more on that later...
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  2. Shadowed_fury

    Shadowed_fury Minimodder

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    Simply amazing work.
    These last few pics look like Mars landing stuff xD
     
  3. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    Some Whacky Bracketry...

    There's gonna be some schtuff swingin' in the back of this rig and I thought of a clever way to make the brackets for them. Thinking it was worth giving it a go... here's some backyard machine shopery...

    Tools: drill press, bandsaw and belt sander...

    I started with a couple of pieces of 1/2" x 2" aluminum flatbar and drew some patterns on them...

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    These are 1/2" holes through the plates, but on the edges of the longer piece, the holes are 5/32" x 1" deep, with a counterbored 5/16" hole that's 7/16" deep...

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    The plates were cut on the bandsaw, slicing the 1/2" holes in half...

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    Then I cut out the shapes on the bandsaw and cleaned up the edges on the belt sander...

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    #8-32 holes are tapped in the larger part of the bracket... screws are recessed in the other half... they kinda remind me of connecting rod caps...

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    This pair of brackets is intended for the actuator lever arms and if ya look close, you can see there's still some room for "final fitting" on the shaft holes... I'm gonna sneak up on it.

    They should look nice with some extra holes drilled through like the rest of the rig and all polished up.

    Believe it or not, the reason for doing it this way is so I can get inside the holes to cut keyway notches on the bandsaw... I hope it works... :dremel:
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  4. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    The Linear Actuator Mount

    Teaser pics... meaning I didn't take the time to take shots in progress, but can't finish the actuator assembly until the watercut backplate shows up... I was in a cuttin' and drillin' and tappin' mood, so I got it as far as I could... :hip:

    In brief, its a series of 1/2" thick aluminum flatbars that were cut, drilled, tapped and assembled... The actuator has a 2" stroke and will "lift" on the retracting stroke... taking four seconds. It has limit switches built into it and runs on 12V.

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    Some Other Arse End Schtuff...

    Because I can't do inside cuts on the bandsaw, I had the mainboard backplate, the radiator mount and mainboard stiffeners all watercut by Alpine Machine in Oregon. Its really cool to send an e-mail with some .DXF files and get a UPS package with parts a few days later. :cooldude:

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    The original Cooler Master braces will, of course, come off...

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    Cam followers bought on eBay for ten cents on the dollar...

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    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  5. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    The Mainboard Tray Develops...

    Apologies for the lousy pictures on this post, but so it goes... :hip:

    I was struggling with using a LianLi motherboard tray and the brackets it required, so finally went into my goody bag for an older CoolerMaster tray. It was a spare from the original BaDass project.

    Old CoolerMaster sliding trays use slick little nylon guides for tracks. They work real well on these aluminum angles, for a clean mounting design I just wouldn't have gotten with a LianLi track. I started by drilling holes in some aluminum angles for the tracks. Each side has two of these nylon tracks...

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    The tracks have small "nubbins" to keep them in place on sheetmetal, so I counterbored the back side of the holes to the thickness they were designed for. That's one of the tracks just to the right of the holes...

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    Here's one of the tracks mounted in the Main Pod, using screws from the bottom into tapped holes in the angle, held back a bit more than 1/4" from the back edge for the Main Pod backplate...

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    And there we have it... the beginnings, anyway...

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    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  6. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    The Mainboard Tray... developing...

    The mainboard tray's full backplate cover went together much easier than I expected...

    For starters, I drilled out the pop rivets that held the mainboard tray's backplate in place. Then it was a simple matter of transfering the locations to the new backplate that was watercut by Alpine Machine, drilling the holes out a bit, counter boring them and that was that...

    The 1/4" thick backplate still needs to be scribed and fitted to the pod.

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    The braces were a bit different. They're attached with #6 screws from the bottom, into tapped holes put in the center of each brace...

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    The sides of the braces attach to the sides of the mainboard tray's backplate...

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    The actuator bracket is also finished. Its made from a series of 1/2" thick aluminum plates assembled with #8-32 screws in drilled and tapped holes. The drilled out brace is 3/8" thick aluminum. The 1/4" pivot bolt (will be replaced later with a pin) is riding in bronze bushings.

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    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  7. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    Installing the Actuator...

    Getting a nice looking, clean, 2" x 4" cut-out in the 1/4" thick backplate... it almost had me going to my buddy's machine shop and asking him to do it for me, but well, that just wouldn't be right, now would it?

    So I drilled a hole in each corner of the cut-out, drilled a couple of more holes to fit a jigsaw blade and hacked it out... it took three jigsaw blades to get it done. It's one ugly bit of work.

    Then I cut a rectangle out of a piece of plywood, centered it over the cut-out and clamped everything down. You can see the jigsaw damage centered in this plywood "picture frame"... ugleee...

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    The size of the cut-out in the plywood is (2" x 4") plus twice the distance from the router bit to the router's edge... hope that makes sense...

    The router bit is a cheapo 1/4" straight cutter...

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    Here's the router in the plywood cut-out... you can see it can only go two inches to the right...

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    Here's how it turned out... not so butch after all, eh? :hip:

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    The actuator is fixed to the backplate with four #8-32 screws that go into tapped holes on the actuator bracket.

    Next to do... mount the pivot shaft... that's gonna be a tough one... :eyebrow:

    Well, O.K., not tough, but dimensionally challenged... :idea:

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    You'll soon see why that plate hangs beyond the main pod... heck, I'll show ya now, with the promise it'll soon look much different... :hip:

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    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  8. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    More Whacky Bracketry...

    Layed out on 1/2" thick aluminum flatbar...

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    Cut to shape and paired with their matching rod caps...

    By the way, I had some big trouble with 3/4" drill bits, so the large holes on the dome ring brackets had to be made with the router, there's a reason a few of them are 7/8" and no, you can't see an example of the screw-up... :duh:

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    Bolted to the rod caps and finished to shape on the belt sander...

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    And a quick jump ahead to the dome ring pivot brackets, now cut to their final shape and with the surfaces sanded with 50 grit, installed on the pivot shaft...

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    The thing is quiet as hell and and the actuator takes about four seconds to do the full two inch stroke, just like its supposed to do. Sweet mother of PC's, this thing is SCHWEET!!! This is the actuator in the retracted position...

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    From above, you can kinda see how the actuator brackets nestle in between the radiator pod brackets...

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    The power supply I'm using in the test is a dual redundant 500W I-Star. I'm not sure if it'll stay in the rig or not (probably not).

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    The actuator brackets were a squeeze... I was almost stumped over the pin that connects the bracket to the actuator...

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    With the dome ring down you can see how it was important to keep the pin flush with the brackets...

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    Here's the pin I used... it was cut down a bit and rides in a bronze bushing in each of the brackets. The cool thing is that it fits so well, it doesn't need a retainer to keep it in place...

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    There's a video... :worried: Its an Apple Quick Time file, 30 seconds long, half of it is yours truly fiddling with wires and its no Hollywood production, but to see it, just clicky here.

    Its about 7 MB, but if you want to see it going up and down, there she is.
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  9. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    Wheels...

    I started with a leftover chunk of 1/2" aluminum plate, trying to fit a couple of brackets on it that were as long as possible... then drilled and tapped it to suit, with 5/8" holes drilled only part way through for the cam followers' boss...

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    I cut down a stud that's 1/4-20 on one side and 1/4-28 on the other, so I could use a couple of chrome acorn nuts instead of a simple 1/4-28 screw...

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    And there ya go... now the mainboard tray and everything that's attached to it is supported whenever its "rolled out"... :hip:

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    It turns out that the wheels are handy for rolling the whole case about. You pick up the front end by the outriggers and it rolls around like a two wheeled wheelbarow or a dolly... who'dathunk?
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  10. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    BaDactivity...

    This is one of my favorite parts of this rig, because it goes a bit beyond cuttin' and shapin' metal. More importantly, its mostly the creation and work of Starbuck3733T... about 3000 miles away... :rock:

    It started life as a mini-tachometer pod for motorcycles. I cut a 3/8" thick aluminum plate to fit behind the bezel and drilled it for an amber illuminated Bulgin switch and a dozen LED's. Big thanks to OCBlue for getting the amber Bulgin switch to me from across the pond...

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    But to the fun schtuff... Starbuck came up with the idea of putting chasing LED's around the power switch that will show HDD activity. :naughty:

    Storage drive activity:

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    RAID Array:

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    Both:

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    All of this fits right inside the pod, thanks to a special circuit board he's creating...

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    Is that cool, or what? :hip:
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2007
  11. Arkuden

    Arkuden mow?

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    OMFG! That is the coolest thing i have ever seen. wow is all I can say.....
     
  12. zr_ox

    zr_ox Whooolapoook

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    What he said!

    Jesus...

    When I saw your design I had serious doubts that you would pull it off...sorry for that, its nothing personal! It's just that you see so many incredible designs and none of them EVER really look close upon completion.

    This is phenomenal work...WOW!
     
  13. Da_Rude_Baboon

    Da_Rude_Baboon What the?

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    Bwaa haa haa! You guys aint seen nothing yet. :D

    I have been following the original project logs on Wizd-Forums and Dutch has amazing things to show you. :rock:
     
  14. Rai_Polo

    Rai_Polo What's a Dremel?

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    That case is pretty sweet. How come you didn't integrate the opticals? Man I wish I had access to a shop like that. Good stuff.
     
  15. Mister_Tad

    Mister_Tad Will work for nuts Super Moderator

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    Simply mind-blowing, fantastic work :eek:

    looking forward to the rest
     
  16. Dj Ovin

    Dj Ovin What's a Dremel?

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    Love it, nothing more to say. Looks like a awesome case!;O

    Keep up the good work!
     
  17. Big SturL

    Big SturL What's a Dremel?

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    This might just be THE most advanced casemod EVAR!!! Mad props!
     
  18. Rocket733

    Rocket733 Austerity - It's the only way

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    Awesome job!! Are you definitely going to paint it? It looks pretty darn good so far in just plain aluminum.
     
  19. simosaurus

    simosaurus What's a Dremel?

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    aw man thats the best thing ive ever seen :D the external pump assembely etc is just incredible.
     
  20. dutchcedar

    dutchcedar What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks... :thumb:

    I have this thing for large monitors, three at a time, forcing me to put the 'puter case more than an arm's reach away... it was actually the idea of a movable optical pod that was the seed for this whole thing... :D

    A shop like that? Hehe. Its just half of a garage, a small drill press, sander, etc. I admit to rarely meeting a tool I don't like and do have a real cool one up my sleeve (you'll hear about that one later), but the most expensive tool I've used so far is the router... it cost a hundred bucks. :dremel:
    Oh yah... there's no question about paint (except the colors). :hip:

    Thanks for all the kind and supportive words... :thumb:
     
    Last edited: 9 May 2006

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